Portfolio Performance (month ending October 2012)

Recent Performance

The last five months have seen the portfolio increase in value by 17.2% which compares well to the FTSE100 index increase of 9.3%.

 

 The table below shows the monthly returns for the last 12 months:

Month	Return
Nov 2011	-3.2%
Dec 2011	-2.0%
Jan 2012	3.7%
Feb 2012	3.9%
Mar 2012	-4.1%
Apr 2012	-3.9%
May 2012	-5.1%
Jun 2012	1.8%
Jul 2012	6.0%
Aug 2012	2.0%
Sep 2012	3.6%
Oct 2012	2.8%

And is further summarised in the table below:

One month	Three months	Six months	YTD 2012	12 months
2.8%	8.6%	11.2%	10.5%	4.8%

Current Holdings

Investment	Weighting
iShares EUROSTOXX 50 ETF	55.9%
iShares Asian Property ETF	16.7%
Zopa Lending	7.7%
DJ-UBS Natural Gas ETC	7.5%
Other Pension Funds	5.7%
iShares Far East ex Japan Small Cap	5.0%
Gold	1.3%
Cash	0.4%

Investing the majority of the cash into EUROSTOXX 50 ETF, Natural Gas and Zopa has increased the weighting in these three investments. The portfolio is very heavily weighted towards European stocks at the moment but I see the index as good value and well diversified.

ishares EUROSTOXX50

Recently increased holdings in this at 1989p a share. Short term target around 2360p, current price 2054p.

ishares Asian Property

At the current price I won't be adding to these holdings. Close to its short term target of 1690p a share. Currently 1576p a share.

DJ-UBS Natural Gas ETC

Recently increased holdings of natural gas by 50%. Probably the last addition to this trade as I don't want to hold too high a weighting of any one commodity in the portfolio. The high target price of 56c (currently 13.3c) means if the price rises then the proportion of the portfolio invested in natural gas will increase. At that stage I may slowly move out of the trade to keep the asset allocation reasonable (not more than 15% of the portfolio invested in commodities).

Other Pension Funds

These are still active and nominal amounts are added to them each month.

Zopa Lending

Current rates at Zopa in the A* long markets gives me an expected return of about 6.1% a year. With the recent moving of cash into Zopa around 50% of the Zopa balance is in holding awaiting lenders. I expect at the current rate to have lent out most of this balance within a month or two.

ishares Far East (ex Japan) Smaller Companies

No major changes in this holding. Recent IMF growth forecast downgrades have lower the expected return on this fund and thus it's short term target. Current target is 1860p a share with a current price of 1578p a share.

Gold

No changes.

Cash

Very little cash holdings at present as I invested the relatively large amount recently roughly splitting it; 50% EUROSTOXX, 25% Zopa, 25% Natural Gas.

Asset Allocation